Texas A&M Baseball 2016 SEC Tournament Preview

After enjoying a much appreciated extra day of rest with their first round bye, the Ags get the pleasure of waking up at the break of dawn to get ready for their fourth matchup of the year with the Vanderbilt Commodores. Should be fun!

Yesterday, Vandy took on Missouri and their ace, Tanner Houck. The teams were knotted at zero until the bottom of the sixth, when Vandy finally broke the scoring seal. In actuality, there was almost zero chance that the Aggies would get to face Missouri, but Houck gave everybody five and a half innings of hope. Thanks for that, I guess.

No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt, 9:30 am

Andrew Vinson (3-2, 2.83) vs. John Kilichowski (1-2, 4.29)

For those that might not be very familiar with postseason tournaments in college baseball, coaches typically save their frontline starters until they feel they desperately need them. The SEC Tournament is no different. We saw Missouri throw their best arm against Vandy because they knew that he was their only viable chance at taking down those #VandyBoys. We also saw the Commodores go with their usual number three starter in Patrick Raby because they felt confident enough in him to get them through what will most likely be their easiest game of the tournament.

Well in this ballgame, Rob Childress has decided to give Vinson his first start of the year. This isn't necessarily a case where RC and the Ags are essentially counting this game as a win, but with the way Vinson has pitched over the last month or so, Childress decided to let him try his hand in a weekend-type role. There's not much to be said about how absolutely dominant Vinson has been since coming back from a back injury earlier in the year except that he's been crazy good.

Vanderbilt has also decided to start one of their better bullpen guys in John Kilichowski. On the year, Kilichowski has racked up a WHIP of 1.428 and a K/9 of just 7.14. But even though he doesn't have the best numbers this season, Kilichowski has proven to be one of Tim Corbin's most reliable arms in his time at Vanderbilt.

How to Watch

Are you tired of constantly wishing you could watch your favorite college baseball team from the comfort of your own home? Are you constantly feeling like you haven't heard enough of Ben McDonald's anecdotal accounts of how poorly those mean ol' Aggies treated him in 1989? Well wish no more! EVERY game of the 2016 SEC Baseball Tournament can be found on the SEC Network! And as a special bonus, the championship game will be broadcast on ESPN2!

You can also follow the results of the tournament on the SEC's real time bracket.

Quick aside about the bracket: the Ags have already faced every team left standing so far at some point during the regular season, and of those seven teams, they won the series against six of them. If the Ags are able to advance past Vanderbilt, they'll take on the winner of South Carolina/Ole Miss. And if things end up playing out, they could score themselves a rematch with the Florida Gators in the championship game.